"Auntie, are there any empty houses in our village that can be sold or rented for the winter?" Ling'er still had ten taels of silver in her hand, and she thought that if she could sell it after paying back the silver, it would be the best, and if she couldn't do it, she would rent it first. When her frog oil is sold, she will have money again, and it will not be too late to make plans when the time comes.

"Who has a vacant house here, it's all inhabited." Although Qian didn't know why Ling'er asked, he also said it directly.

"The old Zhang family at the head of the village is going to move to the town in the next two days, but I don't know if his family will sell the house?" Wang Dali, who had been on the side without speaking, said that he was more informed about the news when he went to the town every day than the Qian family who was at home all day.

"How far is it from here?" Ling'er came to the spirit all of a sudden, as long as the problem of the house is solved, the rest of the matter will be easy to do.

"It's not too far, it's the first one we saw when we entered the village, what do you say his house smells like?" Wang Dali recalled the scene at that time.

"Oh, that rustic house?" Ling'er jumped up suddenly, it was a very good house, the house was built very neatly, the important thing is that there are many fruit trees and flowers in the yard, and even the fence is not the thorns commonly used here, but a large patch of morning glory. Especially like the characteristic farmhouse she went to in modern times, she said it casually at the time. It would be great if I could buy that house, but I don't know if I have enough money, so I would have known to advance some silver from Dr. Wang.

"Yes, yes, that's it, he has two sons, and more than ten years ago he went out with his relatives to run a business and heard that he was making money. The year before last, his family's newly built house said that it would be for his sons to live in the future. As a result, not long after his eldest son came back in the spring of this year, he opened a cloth village in the town, which is the one we went to. A while ago, I bought a two-entry mansion in the town, and I heard that there is a girl or something, and she will move away in the next two days, and everyone in the village knows it. Wang Dali also listened to his own sister-in-law more, plus heard it from the people who worked together.

"That's great, aunt, let's go and ask." Ling'er said, and pulled Qian's hand, the touch of the hand made her heart tighten, where is the hand, it is as simple as pulling a dry old tree root. Looking at her face again, it was even more miserable. I didn't pay attention to it just now, but now when I look closely, I find that there are large black and purple patches on both of her cheeks. If you didn't guess wrong, it should be frostbite, sallow face, and it was caused by malnutrition. The wrinkles at the corners of the eyes are also like thousands of furrows, full of vicissitudes. The dry hair was even more charred, and it was not as beautiful as the dead grass on the roadside. It can be seen that the Qian family has endured hardships for her grandmother's family, and she will definitely be better to her in the future.

"What? What kind of room to see? Qian couldn't understand Ling'er's train of thought at all, I thought it was just idle chat, but I didn't expect this child to go to see the house.

"Let's go, it's nothing to see, and I don't need money." Min'er knew Ling'er's plan, glanced at her sister, and saw that her sister was confident, and knew that she had a way again.

"Grandma, you wait at home, what do you have to say, wait until we come back." Ling'er looked at Wu's anxious face, and hurriedly reassured.

"Hey, Xiang Mother, you can take the children and see the flowers and plants." Wu thought that Ling'er liked the flowers and plants in that yard, but in fact, it was the favorite place for the children in the village, and if she met the grandmother of the Zhang family, she would give a few to wear. Even their own little granddaughter has something to do and runs there, but most of the time she doesn't necessarily get it.

Except for Wang Dali who accompanied Ling'er's grandmother to look at the things on the car by the way, the rest of the group soon arrived in front of the Zhang family, and the gate of his house was open at the moment, and someone was loading things into the carriage from inside, and they were very disdainful when they saw the Qian family coming:

"What are you?" It was a middle-aged man who seemed to be living a good life, and was wearing fine cotton clothes.

The fabrics of this era had a very strict hierarchy, and only the royal relatives could wear fine silk; Those who have an official body can wear medium silk; Some such as imperial merchants or ancestors who have official positions and are now squires on one side, and then those who have fame but have not entered the ranks, or those who are rich and rich can wear silk, of course, there are also those who are not hugely rich will also do such a two-piece façade, and no one will delve into it. The fine, medium and secondary here refer to the texture of the silk, which is thin and firm, shiny, and drapey. It belongs to the royal family, which is rare to see on the market. There is a slight difference between medium silk and fine silk, but the luster and drape are slightly worse, and it is not easy to distinguish with the naked eye. The clue can only be seen when the two kinds of satin are put together, and of course the connoisseur knows it at a glance. The second silk is much more popular than the above two, and it is very common in the market, which is much thicker than the first two, only thinner than cotton. Glossiness is also poor, if the gloss of fine silk is five, then the silk is three, and the second silk can only barely be regarded as one, that is, it is brighter than the cotton cloth without gloss. As for the sag, it is about the same as the medium silk, but the texture is not so fine, but it is also very dense.

As for the grade of cotton, it is not so strict, as long as you have the money to buy it, you can wear it. Compared with satin, cotton cloth can better reflect the economic ability of the wearer, and is not linked to politics like silk. The cotton cloth on the market is roughly divided into four grades, the first level is fine cotton, compared with silk satin, it only lacks gloss and drape, most of the royal relatives, a product and other high-class people use it to make intimate clothing. The second level is fine cotton, which is harder in texture than fine cotton and not as soft as fine cotton. The third level is coarse cotton, which has a thicker texture and poor firmness. The fourth level is the hemp cotton commonly used by ordinary people, and the so-called hemp cotton refers to the mixing and weaving of cotton and linen in a ratio of 3:1. The texture is thick and rough, more wear-resistant than other fabrics, so it is very popular with the common people, and the bedding of the inn mentioned above is also made of this linen cotton. Speaking of which, I have to say that there is another kind of cloth, which is the burlap woven by the poorer people themselves with fine twine, similar to the material of the sack used in modern times, but the thread is thinner than that sack, woven tighter, and feels almost the same, and it feels a little tied to the touch. Hongsongtun is richer than Baijiatun, so no one wears linen clothes, all of them are linen and cotton coats and coarse cotton underwear. And the people in Wangjiatun can't afford to wear coarse cotton, but they are all linen cotton, only Ling'er's grandmother's family wears linen clothes and has patches. From this, it can be seen how difficult the life of the Wang family is, and those who lend them money are either kind or lack hearts, of course, Ling'er prefers to believe that they are kind.

Gossip aside, the book gets back to business.

"We're here to ask, is this house going to be sold?" Aunt Zhang was angry when she saw that person looked down on Qian's family.

"Of course it's going to be sold, please come in and see it." As soon as the man heard Aunt Zhang's words, he immediately took the person into the courtyard, completely without the expression he had just had.

"This house was newly built three years ago, and it has a total of two main rooms and three wings on each side." A two-bedroom main house is a hall with two bedrooms and a kitchen at the back of the hall. A three-bedroom room is a bedroom with three separate doors side by side, and there is no hall or kitchen. Then he went on to say:

"The foundation of this house was dug deep, and it was full of boulders. The walls are all fine blue bricks, and the roof tiles are also fine official kiln tiles. You can see, after three years, it is the same as a brand new one, and it is definitely not a problem to use it for another five or ten years. "This is the northern region, and the winter is cold, so the foundation of a good house is dug deep and built with large stones to prevent the house from sinking in the future. If there is no foundation, it is built directly on the ground, and after the winter, the house will sink in the spring when it is civilized, and such a house will easily collapse.

"Everyone, please go to the main room and take a look inside." The people did not speak, but listened to his introduction.

"I don't take any of the furniture in this house, only some of the softness. Now it's almost gone, except for the baggage, the rest is all left, including the pots and pans in the kitchen and the bottles and cans of oil, salt, sauce and vinegar. ”

"How much does this house cost?" Min'er opened her mouth, and as soon as she opened her mouth, Ling'er was stunned, and then she understood that Min'er was in love, and to be honest, she was also very satisfied.

"Thirty-five taels of silver, this is a fair price, my father spent more than forty taels to build this house." In fact, when this house was first built, it cost thirty-five taels.

"This price is not fair at all, to tell you the truth, I am in love with this house. But this price is far behind, and you are not the price to sell the house sincerely. Min'er sat there without hurry, and said generously. This kind of bearing made the owner of the house involuntarily feel a little weak-hearted, and hurriedly changed his words:

"Seeing that the girl sincerely wants to buy it, then I will suffer a loss, you give thirty taels, and it will not be a penny." The landlord made a meat-cutting expression, how did Ling'er look like constipation.

"Hehe, let's not talk about the price first, let's talk about this house first." Min'er glanced at Ling'er, who was snickering there, glared at her, and continued:

"This house is a good house, but the location is a little worse. If this house is put in the town, not to mention thirty taels, it is possible to say fifty taels or one hundred taels. The point is that this place is wrong, this Wangjiatun is not the poorest in the town, right? It's a blank ride here, not to mention thirty taels, even 10 taels, no one can afford it, right? So people who can afford it from outside can come to this place to buy a house? If nothing else, such a difficult path scares people away. Do you think what I said is reasonable? Min'er calmly analyzed for the landlord and said something. Even Ling'er was a little awe-inspiring, and I saw that the landlord was also nodding on the side. Min'er continued:

"I won't say much else, I really like this house, so I'll give you a good price. Fifteen taels of silver, which is five taels of fixed silver. Immediately, we will go to the town to file a paper and pay the balance. If it doesn't work, then I'll go to the village and buy another house. Min'er took a five-tael silver stator and put it on the table beside her, she knew that the silver in her hand must not be enough. Anyway, I have to go to the town to go through the formalities, go to Dr. Wang to borrow it first, and then pay it back after selling the frog oil. Min'er is confident now, and the mountains are full of her family's silver.